Dagestan has been the scene of a separatist struggle for years. Credit: ITV News/John Ray

The backlash ordered by President Putin – who has so much personal prestige invested in the success of Sochi – has been brutal.

Ramazan Dzhajarov, Dagestan’s deputy prime minster, and the man in charge of security here, told me: ’It is not true that we set out simply to exterminate terrorists…but our single purpose must be to ensure the safety of the Olympics.’’